


Firefall

by CruelisnotMason



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Betrayal, Canon Compliant, Corruption, Dark Magic, Dubious Consent, Emotional Manipulation, F/F, Hopeful Ending, Horde Lord Adora (She-Ra), Hurt, Minor Character Death, Morally Ambiguous Character, Pining, Power Dynamics, Unhealthy Relationships, hints of - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:48:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25411132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CruelisnotMason/pseuds/CruelisnotMason
Summary: Adora decides against going back to the Whispering Woods, and she doesn't regret it. In the Horde she finally climbed up the ladder and became Force Captain, and now there's nothing in the way between her and her dreams. And Catra seems to have forgiven her, too.As soon as they both come out on top together, everything will be good. At least, that's what they always thought.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 67





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is very inspired by - you guessed it - that wonderful Lord Adora artwork that floats around [twitter](https://twitter.com/mondaykilly/status/1277346273968836608?s=20) all day long. I friking love the idea of a universe in which Adora, who never went after the sword into the whispering woods, became Force Captain and things kind of spiraling from then on.
> 
> This naturally gives us some time to explore her and Catra's relationship during Adora's rise. And I'm very eager to write that~

* * *

* * *

Force Captain Orientation takes a while but when it's over, Adora feels relieved.  The numbness she feels during the  seemingly  endless recital of rules and expectations is what brings her through it, and stays with her even after it's over.

With the final words, everyone gets up and walks toward the cafeteria to get their ration bars or a plate of sticky grey porridge, but Adora doesn’t join them. She sneaks back to her squeaky mattress in the dormitory, clutching the force captain badge in her left hand  tightly  when she lies down. The others - Adora has already forgotten their names - all wore it to the orientation, chest puffed and proud, and badge shining.

Since the other night Adora couldn't stop thinking about the weirdness of the whispering woods, but in the end it was Catra who talked her out of going back.

"You're acting weird," Catra had said with the small disappointed frown that  barely  left her forehead since the day Adora told her she'd be Force Captain, but not together with her. The urge to go back felt inhuman, and yet Adora didn't follow it.  Instead she stayed back and rolled around her mattress in the night until Lonnie almost shouted from the upper bunk beds that Adora should stop making a ruckus. But Adora couldn’t help it.  It was the first night in a while that Catra had decided to sleep in her own bed - if out of pettiness or hurt, Adora doesn’t know - and Adora could not fall victim to deep dreams as quick as usual.

There’s a change.

Adora holds up her hands to her face while lying on her bed, staring at the pale fingertips with studded with scars and callus like the Fright Zone with green specks in the evening.  She stays in the empty dormitory until late noon, mind running off thoughts and empty at the same time, clenching and relaxing her hands. She wished she could stop time just for a moment, and make everything slow down. Instead, she stares at her hands as if all time has already slipped through her fingers.

Not often  does Adora allow herself to feel like this,

helpless.

_Alone_.

When the slightest feeling returns to her legs, she stands and huffs a relieved sigh. The dorms seem bigger when they are completely empty.  She never noticed how the reflection of the mirror next to a single washing basin plays against the opposite wall. Adora decides to stand up and walk closer, and only stops when she spies her own tired eyes looking back at her.

For a moment, all she hears is her own slowing breathing, and everything around her starts to darken.

" _Adora_.”

At the call of her name Adora whips around, immediately facing Shadow Weaver. Not once in her life does Adora remember Shadow Weaver entering the cadets’ shared rooms, and can  barely  hide her surprise, to find her a few steps away, invading her privacy. She promptly stumbles backwards a few steps-

"Shadow Weaver!" she exclaims, mind spinning and head thumping with worry. "Hello!"

Shadow Weaver ignores Adora's unprofessional slip-up.  Her heavy gown drags behind her as she enters the wide hall of the dormitory, little lights dancing on her emotionless mask.

"Today was Force Captain Orientation, Adora," she says, floats and holds right in front of her. Adora glances to the side, to the bunk bed, where she knows a small drawing of her and Catra  is hidden.

"Yes, ma'am!" The blonde says it  firmly  when her eyes shift back. For a moment, Shadow Weaver doesn't move at all. If it weren't for the frayed ends of her robe slither, Adora would have thought she froze in place.

The tall woman with black hair and the - at times - immovable mask looks at her for another split second, the slit of eyes squinting all so  slightly. "No need to be so formal, Adora." Her bony right hand raises to her face, grazing the rosy skin with her fingernails. Adora's cheeks burns under the touch.

"There's something I want to talk to you about, dear child."

Adora closes her eyes, and the hand is gone. The heat still lingers on her skin. "Yeah?" she hears herself ask.

"For years Force Captain Orientation has been the only training but  I think… it's _lacking_ , child." When Adora doesn't inquire, she goes on. "I thought you might be in need of some extra training."

"You want to teach me?" Adora's eyebrows rise to her hairline.

When Catra and Adora were younger, Catra had talked about the possibility of Shadow Weaver teaching them her magic, and using it to bring the Fright Zone under their wing. But Shadow Weaver never even brushed the topic with either of them.

Back then, Shadow Weaver’s magic was not only a popular topic among Catra and Adora.  From what Adora heard, the others - Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio - assumed that Shadow Weaver didn’t deem anyone teachable for magic, and much less competent enough. Others thought you needed to have something special to even learn magic. And so far no one in the Fright Zone was able to.

But Adora? She always thought that it was a reach to think that Shadow Weaver would want to share her knowledge.

Naturally, she's surprised. “Me?” Adora asks,  just  to make sure.

"Yes," Shadow Weaver says, and it almost sounds like she's smiling under her mask. "I would like to give you  additional  training, Adora.” Then, before Adora’s frown can grow any deeper, she adds something that always did its work on her.

“ I think  you have a _gift_."

Adora tries to kill the licking flame in her heart, but keeps burning under the praise. Then, she regains some balance.

Surety.

  


She climbed the ladder and became Force Captain after all. Shadow Weaver doesn’t give out her praise to  just  anyone, and much less does she often. So it has to mean something, Adora thinks to herself.

"Me," Adora repeats with a deprecating laugh, morphing into a stable chuckle. "I'm not. Uh.  I think  I guess I am a _little_ special."

For a moment, Adora's heart feels light and airy like the time before she heard she's going to be Force Captain. Before she told Catra, too.  But  all of  a sudden, the atmosphere around Shadow Weaver changes, and the magician comes closer.

"Child. Listen." Her hair flows around her face, spiking and curling into every direction. The smile from her voice is gone, too.  "You cannot, and I repeat this only for you, you cannot tell anyone about the extra training that you will be receiving out of my bottomless benignity."

The heat dissolves from Adora's skin, and her hands grow stiff at her sides. "But, uh. It’s good news, isn’t it? And Catra—"

All warmth drains from Adora when Shadow Weaver hovers over her.

"No one!" her voice grows louder, strained.

" _Oh_." Adora bites her lips, brings her right hand to her forehead.

At once, Shadow Weaver leans back again, and her hair rolls in gentle waves in the air. "Something great will happen soon, Adora."

She stays mute. Her eyes shift again to her own empty bunk bed, to the spot where Catra usually sleeps at night. But Shadow Weaver turns her face back to her with a thumb and index finger.

"Congratulations again on becoming Force Captain, Adora.  _Don't forget,_ " Shadow Weaver squeezes Adora's face for a moment, fingernails breaching the skin by digging so deep. For a second, she holds on, long enough to bring Adora’s heart to a violent pump in her ribcage, threatening to crawl out of her mouth. She bites her teeth together, and  suddenly  it’s over.

Shadow Weaver turns around in a swift motion, and with it, she's almost out of the door.

"Power _changes_ the people around you."

Her robe sways with her steps, and when it disappears, it gives room to the corridor behind the doorframe, where Catra stands.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First appearance of Catra!

Adora holds her breath.

In front of her is Catra, barefoot, wild hair, tight clothes in bordeaux and black– a look that has ingrained itself into Adora’s inner eye since the first time they met.  Even when they were younger, Catra only sometimes wore her actual Horde uniform, and turned herself into a most distinguishable self.

The way Catra walks and looks, it always impresses Adora- even now. She feels her own breath quicken, but forces herself to calm all while Catra looks at her,  curiously. Her tail whips, her eyes are wide open, and two pupils as thin as slits currently stare at Adora.

Adora feels like she’s caught in the act, and it makes her breathless.

She  really  hopes Catra didn’t hear them. Or that she questions why Shadow Weaver came here.

“What did Shadow Weaver want?” Catra asks, and Adora’s hope flies out the window. She watches Catra’s eyes shift to the side where the mage only was a few seconds ago.

Adora heaves a sigh. Catra comes closer, cocks a brow, folds her arms when she stops right next to Adora.  At least she hasn’t overheard their conversation, Adora thinks, and doesn’t want to picture her reaction if she had.

“Adora?” Catra asks, uncertainty clear in her voice. She blinks, cocks a brow, a small smirk playing around her lips. “Are you there?”

Adora blinks too, looks in Catra’s blue and yellow eyes for what feels too long to  be considered  normal.

“Uh,” he coughs. “The usual.”

“The usual,” Catra repeats, hoarse voice breaking into a soft tone.

As long as Adora can think, she never  directly  lied to Catra. There were a few lies, sure.  Whenever Shadow Weaver said something negative about Catra, she  happily  shoved all she heard under a rug that was to be never lifted, that wasn’t a lie.  When Adora told Catra that Lonnie prefered to hang with Kyle and Rogelio, it may have been a small lie, but none that hurt.

All the things that would have hurt Catra if Adora told her about them, she  easily  smoothed over them. Adora always thought of protecting her.

“Are you going crazy?” Catra nudges Adora with her elbow, out of her thoughts.

Adora smiles a crooked smile. “A little.”

Since her promotion to Force Captain, few days have passed by, with Catra avoiding her on  all of  them.  It almost felt like they made up with their forbidden trip to the Whispering Woods, but when they came back, Catra seemed to remember her anger.

Now Catra grins at her, and it’s almost as if all  is forgotten.

“Have you forgiven me?” Adora asks to make sure, voice small. In response, Catra’s eyes dilate again.

“Don’t be stupid,” she says, and when she shoves her hand against Adora’s smiling face it’s as if she, yes, in fact, was over it.

Adora takes a deep breath, and shoves back in playful protest, mocking the surprised expression in Catra’s face. “Surprised, soldier?” she teases, but before Catra can even think about a counter attack, Adora ducks and runs out the door.

“I’m gonna catch you!” Catra shouts after her, cackling, already charging to find and fight back again.

The two friends run through the labyrinth of trails within the Fright Zone.  It takes no effort to remember any shortcut or way, and Adora always knows where she’ll end up when she picks one or another.  Outside the building, she immediately dives for the staircase, holds onto the handrail and jumps the last distance to the next platform, runs all up the way, the clatter of her feet against metal following her.

When she looks back, she can't spot Catra, but the sky over her darkens for a split-second, and she knows her friend must be jumping one floor up, above her.

The chase makes her heart beat loud and clear in her ears, the numbness from earlier today forgotten. “You cannot get me,” Adora shouts and laughs, speeds up a notch, and listens to a cackle hollowing back. “ Maybe  I don’t want to, you idiot!”

But Catra is still running with her. Her footsteps might be soft, almost soundless, but Adora feels her close. It’s the thrill of chase that makes her throat close up sometimes.

They reach the platform on top at the same time—okay,  maybe  Catra is a bit quicker when she does her strong legs catapult her over Adora’s head and to the front, where she  easily  turns on the spot to face Adora.

Adora is an inch short of running into her, stops, breath punching out of her by the abrupt motion.

“I won,” Catra says, hand in her hip, hovering a step over her.

Adora breaks out in a grin as bright as the luminous green spill on the ground at night. “Not sure about that,” she challenges. Catra shows her her tongue, with the result of Adora’s eyes flickering down.

But then Catra turns away, walks the last few steps to the spot where she’d always come to think or be alone, where only Adora  was allowed  to find her, and they sit down there together.

As the hidden light of the three planets aligning over the Fright Zone rises and spreads over the area, Adora lets herself finally breathe.  She looks sideways to Catra and stops short at her stoic look and her eyes on the empty area beneath them with disjointed hills of metal pieces lined by orange light.

Today was hot, but now the air around them cools down, and a soft breeze catches on Adora’s hair, blonde strands  ghostly  dancing and shimmering in the bright blue light of the second planet . Somewhere in the distance, there’s a yowl and a clatter, and a mountain of trash shakes. Some pieces of metal clank as they follow down a long trail, roll over the greyish ground and stop with a soft thud.

Adora’s eyes trace their shapes until it’s too dark to see them.

Finally, they have some time between them without distraction, and Adora gathers up all her bravery. “Catra,” she says. “I’m sorry.”

Catra eyes her from the side, then looks down at one metal-dump hill again. She feigns to be thinking. “Oh, that.” The reply comes after a while. “ Just  don’t forget me when you’re famous,” she sing-songs.

Surely  Catra intended it as a joke, but it sounds snarky and bitter in her undertone. As if she noticed herself, she huffs a sigh and lays her head down on her left arm dangling from a handrail. “I know you had no say in that.

In that—which means the thing that Adora wanted more than anything. In that—which means the thing that Catra once said she wanted, years ago, but never seemed to be as invested in.

It’s an olive branch, and Adora takes it.

“Yeah.” She stutters out a laugh.

Her eyes were already tracing the silver lined silhouette of Catra against the grey-green clouds bright orange sky, but now she turns to her, even takes her hand. “Catra, I swear,” she swallows, “I will bring you up the ranks with me. As soon as I have anything to say in that matter, I’ll—”

“—bring me with you, huh?” Catra finishes.  Her bittersweet smile turns genuine and the difference is stronger than that between night and day; even her whole body relaxes. Adora smiles too, relieved.

“Yeah. Don’t you always say it? We’re going to be in charge around here—”

“And we're gonna conquer the world together,” Catra ends.  Finally, she looks,  really  looks at Adora again, and it makes her feel relief, giddiness, excitement at once. “You go people pleasing, and I’ll meet you at the finish line.”

Adora doesn’t take offense to it like earlier, she’s thankful things smoothed out between them again.  She can’t shake the feeling that something oh-so-slight has shifted between them, and the longer she smiles at Catra, the more she feels like it’s glaring into her face.

Yet, she can’t put a finger on it.

But it doesn’t matter, not when Catra smiles back, that genuine smile that doesn’t  solely  come from the thought of blowing things up or driving a tank—one of her biggest dreams.  She smiles because it’s Adora right in front of her, and realizing that, Adora feels smitten, cocky, but also nervous.

Only now Adora realizes they are still holding hands, or rather, she is holding Catra’s.  She doesn’t dare look down, nervous for what will happen if Catra notices, or for her pulling back at Adora’s slightest shift.

Another breeze blows, stronger as before, and Catra pulls back to cover her bare arms with her hands and rub them. She stares at the planets in the starless sky, and the cold light that radiates from them.

“Adora.” It’s only a whisper. “Do you promise?”

There’s a moment, where Adora feels like she’ll stumble over the words that since long  are practiced  ad absurdum, an inscription to her heart, something she knows in her sleep.

“I promise,” she says, and with relief notices she did not stumble over her words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to leave comments<3


End file.
